Friday, March 30, 2007

Thing 23: Summary.

Yahoo, I'm done! The weeks just flew by what with all the fun I was having. I discovered that I am a motivated self-starter who can stay on task and that I can find time to learn new things. I learned about a number of new tools such as Zoho and rediscovered some tools, such as technorati. I learned that Blogger's grown up quite a bit since I last used it - I can even post easily in Japanese, as in my post below! Moreover, thanks to the program, I got to know more about a lot of people in the organization, too through messages on my blog and posting messages to other blogs. I'm now feeling inspired to blog again. I would definitely participate in a similar program and enjoyed this opportunity. I'm happy that the organization gave us the time and supported this endeavor.

One annoyance was all the different log-ins and accounts involved. Also, many people at my branch started the exercises but didn't get a chance to finish. Perhaps more time can be allocated for the beginning exercises, or less 'things' can be required, or more exercises that simply getting used to Blogger may be added.

Also, I wrote about this in earlier posts, but one frustration I had with both de.licio.us and technorati at my work computer is that I can't download the browser tools that make it truly easy to use both services. Perhaps IT can be persuaded to allow these tools to be downloaded if such exercises are ever repeated.

I hope we all keep blogging and having fun with the 2.0 technologies. I remember when I first got involved with the Web, I had to learn Unix file structures, ssh and sftp, vi or emacs (I chose vi) - all just to get a "hello world" page online. It's wonderful that it's so much easier these days to get content on the Web, and hopefully will keep getting easier.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

日本語でもブログできます。

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Thing 22: EBooks.

I often refer people to our EBooks collection, and I've even taught a few classes for patrons on how to search for and access EBooks. No, I don't think that a digital book will never replace the experience of handling a paper copy of a book! However, I do think that the searchability of the text really does help for certain types of materials, such as reference and legal books. And the fast time to market (paper books take forever to move from the author through various publishing phases) means that EBooks will often contain the most current information available. I often encourage patrons who are looking for technology-related titles to use the Safari Tech EBooks collection for that reason. I do appreciate the redesigned search interface for SJPL's EBooks collection; it's much easier to find titles and get to content now.

Thing 21: Podcasts.

I love the combination of RSS with podcasts! I set up a number of KPFA podcasts on my bloglines account. KPFA airs a booktalk/author interview program every weekday from 3 to 3:30 PM entitled "Cover to Cover". I love the engaging author interviews and insights into world literature that this show offers.

I also tried searching for a number of library-related podcasts. Although some won't play on my work computer, I can see adding these to my itunes podcasts lists at home!